KTVU fires news producers after Asiana gaffe

OAKLAND -- Bay Area television news station KTVU has fired three seasoned news producers after an internal investigation into why the station aired fake and racially offensive names of the Asiana Flight 214 crew.

Dismissed from the Oakland news station this week were investigative news producer Roland De Wolk, special projects producer Cristina Gastelu and producer Brad Belstock, according to their current and former co-workers.

"I'm saddened," said Lloyd LaCuesta, who reported for KTVU for nearly 36 years before his retirement last year. "They're all friends of mine and they're all veteran journalists."

The news station has still not fully explained its July 12 blunder, which happened six days after an Asiana Airlines flight from South Korea crashed at San Francisco International Airport. Three people died and dozens were seriously injured as a result of the crash.

The KTVU gaffe happened when a news anchor, Tori Campbell, announced during a Friday noon news segment that she had "just learned the names of the four pilots on board," then recited ¿four offensive prank names. The names were also written on a graphic that appeared as she was talking. Campbell has not been dismissed.

How the station received the names in the first place remains unclear. Also unknown is how, and if, any of the dismissed journalists were involved in the mistake. KTVU and its parent company, Cox Media, declined to comment.

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De Wolk also declined to comment, and the other two fired employees could not be reached Thursday. A fourth producer told management he was stepping down for unrelated reasons.

Asiana Airlines threatened to sue but backed off.

The Asian American Journalists Association sent a delegation to KTVU on Friday to talk with executives about the racially insensitive mistake and how future errors could be avoided, but the organization does not get involved in personnel matters, said Paul Cheung, AAJA's president.

The error reflected a lapse in the "normal due diligence of journalism," said Cheung, who is also an editor for The Associated Press in New York.